Archive for ‘theory’

I’ve been sick over the last couple days and the work I needed to put into the finalization of my research proposal has been on hold… Until I got a mail from my supervisor yesterday evening. The deadline for submission isn’t until tomorrow, the 15th, but he suggested we’d get together and go through it. So, a meeting was set up for this morning at 11. Him, me, and Ingvil, my co-supervisor.

Sooo very nervous, even though I know I shouldn’t be – they’ve said that pretty much everything is accepted (if this is because everyone works enough on their proposal to get approved, or if they approve just about anything, remains unclear). Put in an hour last night (just a bit about methodology and analysis) and sent it on its way this morning.

Very happy when Ingvil told me the research question was very good! That pretty much made my day. She also commented on how I’ve “found” Toffoletti and said she’s one I can definitely use in my thesis. I was also led in the direction of Beauvoir, which I now see if obvious, but which I didn’t before. That’s good. Also Beudrillard, who I had made a mental note of, but not read much of or about because I wanted to ask for advice first.

The meeting didn’t last for more than maybe 15 minutes, as Cato thought it had to be more formal than it does, and Ingvil had to rush to another meeting.

Next supervision is October 1st, and a group-serupvision regarding methodology and theory. Hope to get some input then, because, man, I feel a little lost!

I met with my co-supervisor Ingvil today. We set up an appointment last week, because I really needed some help figuring out what I actually want to do! I was also to write a draft for the research/project proposal by Friday at noon. So, ideally, I’d talk to Ingvil before then, but she is super-super-busy. I did write something, but after the talk we had today, not much of it is relevant anymore. Also, she did all the talking, more or less, but it really helped, and from what I had written (which had been forwarded to her from the institute), she managed to read what I wanted to do, even though I had been unsuccessful in “writing it out”.

I’ve got a big brain storming map now… I won’t even bother to scan it or anything (and it’s not like you’d get much out of it), but it goes something like this.

The Cyborg

SF’s “hybrid”, but Caprica uses it in a new way

Mind-body

Projection

Avatar – what does that mean? –> Maybe use video game terminology? –> Real world even though it is not. –> Everyone is in everyone’s “fantasy” (through Holobands). The “game” does not control them, they control the “game”, creating it. –> Crossing borders –> Cyborg (also crosses borders)

Zoe + Tamara

Feeling of otherness

“Bringing them back to life” is not a process of othering, but “oneing”. It is the girls themselves who feel “Other”

Tamara is not perceived Other. She is the Ideal, free from the troubles of the world

Existence without a body??

The Ghost in the Machine

The Cyborg-metaphor can be used as an example of physical vs. non-physical.

What constitutes their existence?

Why create Avatars?

Write the plotline.

What happens when the girls are “brought back to life”? How can we understand what happens?

Film theory: a “movie within the movie”

Be aware there are several layers (kind of like Inception). Writing the plotline can be a good way to keep track of which layer I’m in.

Film theory on avatars?

The Graystones at the talk show.

V-world as a parallel world not meant to be parallel. Escape from reality.

The expression is an expression for something else, something that carries meaning

How does Caprica express mind-body, technology, escape from reality? What are the effects? What are the consequences?

What happens to the avatar term when Tamara’s body doesn’t exist someplace else?

So, now I have to get to work. Tomorrow I’ll be re-reading Haraway’s manifesto, with all this is mind. I expressed that I felt Haraway is very much about the body, and the here and now, and the characters doesn’t really have bodies at all. Ingvil told me to re-read and make a note where I feel there’s something “missing”.

I’ll also see if I get through Braidotti and some of her Nomadic Subjects (not existing at one place at all time, ref. back to the last bullet point).

I have to have my proposal ready by the 15th, when I’ll send it to my main supervisor for approval (hopefully). I’ve set up another appointment with Ingvil at the end of October and she wants me to write the plotline before then and send it to her. But, if I find that something else is so much more exciting, I’ll write about that instead…

This blog will focus on my work toward a masters degree in Art- and Cultural Studies at the University of Stavanger, Norway. I’ll be starting my dissertation in August 2010, and hopefully finish it by June 2011. My subject is Battlestar Galactica (BSG) and/or Caprica, BSG’s spin-off prequel series. The subject has not yet been fixed, but I am very interested in the hybrids of the shows (both the “hybrid” cylons that are/control the Basestars), the hybrid child Hera, and the “hybrids” Zoe and Tamara.